The site needs to be safe and the railings need to go around the entire perimeter of the atrium, including both bridges.  This was the task today - get the railings in place so the site is safe.

Cutting the Decking

We still needed to put the plywood decking over the bridge going to the master suite.  Paul and Laura were going to San Francisco for the day so David Staab agreed to help Bryan for a few hours.

Everyone had fun helping cut the plywood and then Bryan was able to complete the posts and railings by himself. 

Our good friend and Eichler mentor, Jerry Ditto, dropped by at the end of the day to review our progress.  He approved.

And, yes, it was another beautiful, blue-sky California day.

Bryan and Paul, standing on the bridge deck (with no railing), planning their work.

The boys are ready to go to work ...

Measure twice, cut once ...

Starting to cut ...

Finishing the cut.

Having fun before Paul and Laura leave for San Francisco.

The decking, posts and railing are completed on the bridge to the master suite.

Bryan has the posts in place on the bridge.

Bryan has the first railing on now.

Jerry Ditto dropped by to review our project (and, he approved).

We

One of the two interior bridges in our house will have glass decking.  The supplier of the glass decking is Sierra Glass Block, which is the distributor in Northern California for the GlassWalk system.

This feature glass decking will be one of the last components to be installed as we want to limit the number of items that could be damaged through simple accidents on our construction site (e.g., dropping a hammer).

We have been working with Terese Eiseman Keller of Sierra Glass Block and she came by our project site to review the structural steel bridge and take some photos.  Terese had not been to our site since July.

Terese Eiseman Keller, from Sierra Glass Block, taking photos of the bridge that will have the glass decking.

With sprinkles in the weather forecast for Monday and rain on Tuesday, we needed to complete welding the final nine posts in place.  We had welded five of the fourteen posts on Thursday.

Welding the Posts

Tony Gutierrez and ‘Little Pete’ arrived just after 8:00 am this morning at our project site.  It was foggy and a bit cool. 

Bryan had the site prepared and the remaining posts laid out.  We were able to start quickly and soon completed the welding on post 33, at the top of the stairs.  This was a complex post as it needed base plates put in and grinding so we could align the bottom of the post correctly.

After post 33, we put post 28 in place, which is on the corner.  This one was a bit tougher and went ok.  Then, we struggled with post 27, an intermediate post.  Finally, it lined up on the third attempt.  We all wanted it perfect.

Back to the top of the staris and we put in post 32, which lined up nicely with post 28.  However, the next intermediate post, post 29, required cutting into the hollow core so we could weld it on all sides.  Posts 29 and 30 were a snap.

Posts in protective wrapping from Paramount Modular Cable Railing Systems

Little Pete welding a shim in place for post 28.

Tony Gutierrez holding post 28 in place while Little Pete welds it.

Tony holds post 27 as Little Pete tacks it in place. We got this one right on the third try.

 Reed and Cole Drop Off a Router

We need to put some temporary railings on the posts so Reed Kingston came by with one of his boys, Cole, and dropped off a router.  They did a quick tour of the site and even tested the stairs.

Reed pointing out some key elements in the plans for his son, Cole.

Cole and Reed posing behind the plan table.

We’re Done

Then, we moved to the front of the house, to weld posts 16 and 19 into place.  These are the first posts our visitors will see when they enter the house.   Post 16 was perfect.  Post 19 was a bit tough as the cap plate was rotated by 90 degrees.  Tony assessed the situation and explained how we could fix it easily.  Fifteen minutes later, it was in place.

We finished by tacking covers over five openings in the steel where concrete could possible flow when we continue pouring.

Then, we packed up and were done.  Bryan closed and locked the gate just before 2:30 pm.

Our posts are in!

Looking up from the bottom of the atrium. It was a beautiful, blue-sky California day.

Our posts are in and looking great!

Posts 33 (left) and 32 (right), showing the bracings, etc. that will buried in concrete shortly.

Completed posts. Very nice.

Posts 16 (left) and 19 (right), which are the first two seen when coming in the front door. Note the clean face of the posts (no holes).